done with a movable one. As many as 1,400 eyes, or inlets of light, have been counted in the head of a drone bee. The spider has eight eyes, mounted on different parts of the head; two in front, two in the top of the head, and two on each side.
One mark of the well-balanced man
is the ability to see in all directions.
(2850)
SEEING, THE ART OF
I once spent a summer day at the mountain
home of a well-known literary woman
and editor. She lamented the absence of
birds about her house. I named a half-dozen
or more I had heard in her trees within an
hour—the indigo-bird, the purple finch, the
yellow-bird, the veery thrush, the red-eyed
vireo, the song sparrow.
"Do you mean to say you have seen or heard all these birds while sitting here on my porch?" she inquired.
"I really have," I said.
"I do not see them or hear them," she said, "and yet I want to very much."
"No," said I; "you only want to want to see and hear them."
You must have the bird in your heart before you can find it in the bush. (Text.)—John Burroughs, "Leaf and Tendril."
(2851)
SEEKING AND FINDING
Tho the inventors have busied their brains
for almost a century in an effort to find a
substitute for wood pulp in the production
of paper, their efforts hitherto met with
failure. Recently an industrial concern has
issued its prospectus, printed upon paper
manufactured from cornstalks in its experimental
plant. The paper is of good
quality and proves the availability of cornstalks
for this purpose.
An earnest search for that which will benefit humanity will sooner or later be rewarded with success. (Text.)
(2852)
SEEKING SERVICE
I have a wealthy friend in Paris who is
spending his money not very wisely, but not
very wickedly. Some of his acquaintances
suggested to him that it would help him
socially and give him more prestige, if he
could go to America and induce President
Roosevelt to appoint him as a member of our
American embassy in Paris. So he came
to Washington and went to see the President,
who very kindly granted him an
audience. He spoke the little speech that he
had prepared to give, beginning by saying,
"I think that I could serve my country, perhaps,
if I should have this appointment in
Paris." President Roosevelt spoke right up,
as he is apt to do and said: "My young
friend, a man desiring to serve his country
does not begin by saying where he is going
to serve."—Charles R. Erdman, "Student
Volunteer Movement," 1906.
(2853)
SELECTION
The world is much what we make it.
The "man with the muckrake" hated his
work, and with good reason. "How sweet
is the smell of those pine boards!" said a
lady to her friend as they were walking near
the river in Chicago. "Pine boards," he exclaimed;
"just smell that foul river!" "No,
thank you," she answered, "I prefer to smell
pine boards."—Franklin Noble, "Sermons
in Illustration."
(2854)
SELECTION BY PURPOSE
Some years ago a cotton-planter in Georgia
observed that the leaves on one of his plants
was unlike the usual leaf; it was divided
as if into fingers. So far nature had gone.
The planter added his intelligence. He concluded
that such a divided leaf would let in
more sunshine on the cotton; also such a
leaf would not be comfortable for caterpillars.
So he searched out one or two of
these peculiar plants, transplanted them to a
field by themselves. As they propagated, he
plucked up those with the old leaf, cultivated
those with the new, and now these new
cotton plants, finer than the old, free from
caterpillars, are spread through many regions.
That is human selection, based on
natural selection, securing the fruits of evolution.
It is just as applicable to man as to
vegetation. A better man may be bred as
well as a better kind of cotton.—Moncure D.
Conway, The Monist.
(2855)
Selection Justified—See Triumph by Selection.
Self-abnegation—See Modesty.
SELF-BLAME
A story of Henry Ward Beecher is told in Christian Work.
Mr. Beecher had been addressing an association
of Congregational ministers somewhere
in New York State, and when he had
finished his address he said he would be
